Running Down My Dreams

Peak Week: Am I Dead Yet?

<Yawn> Sorry about that. I am knee-deep in week 15 of an 18-week training plan and the cumulative fatigue has become an all-encompassing, bone-deep, I can barely move my limbs kind of tired.

Week 15 is peak week in my current training plan, which is a cobbled together plan that takes all of the favorite aspects from my two favorite marathon training plans – the ‘Crush Plan,’ from the Another Mother Runner, Train Like A Mother Club, and the Hanson’s Marathon Method.

For the past 15 weeks (actually longer because remember I started training with an Oct 8 marathon in mind but then had to change my plans due to family obligations) I have been pushing myself by taking the hardest aspects of my two favorite plans and merging them together into the toughest training plan I have ever followed. This week, peak week, includes a 10 mile tempo run (14 miles total,) 9 miles with strides, and a handful of mid-week 6’s and 7’s. And that doesn’t include this weekend’s long run, which tops out at 21 miles. Ouch!

I know I shouldn’t be surprised that I am tired from all of this mileage (I know it’s all relative and that the elites and pros run SO MUCH MORE THAN THIS!) but it just really caught up to me this week. So far, I have finished with 2 out of the three hardest workouts of the week and now if I can just make it through that 21-miler on Sunday I should get a reprieve from the gradual decline in mileage until race day.

Thank heavens. Because seriously, I can barely lift myself up off of the sofa these days. And that’s just not going to cut it when I’ve got posts to write, kids who need help with math, a gymnastics gym to clean up (after my daughter’s practice) and don’t even get me started on that dinner that just refuses to cook itself.

So good luck to all of the runners racing and/or running long this weekend. I’ll be out there too, putting one foot in front of the other and just hoping to drag myself though this last super-long long run so that I can start to recover!